Burned
by starshine.taylor
Summary: Takes place right after Tempted. This is my verison of Burned! Please read and review.
1. Peace

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**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Kristin and P.C. Cast do. **

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**Zoey**

I heard once, on that Twilight movie Damien made me watch, that death was easy but living was harder.

In the blackness, I totally got that. My soul was at such ease, that it was hard to remember ever being worried or stressed. I was barley aware that Heath was right beside me calling my name over and over, trying to get me to wake up. I was dead, he was dead. I could stay in this blackness forever, it was that peaceful. For a minute I forgot all about the worries that I left behind in the living world. My boyfriend problems. Kalona trying to take over the world and kill everyone I loved. Stevie Rae and her red fledglings. Being in Italy at the Vampire High Council. I was at peace in this blackness and I hoped that I could stay in the blackness forever.

_Zoeybird._

The words were barely a whisper, but my soul recognized them. Nyx.

_Zoeybird open your eyes._

Automatically my eyes flew open, leaving the blackness and all of the peace that came with being in that blackness behind. The sun was still high in the sky, which meant that I was still in that beautiful meadow. I was still in the Otherworld. I looked beside me, Heath was there. Seeing him broke something inside of me and I started crying horrible, heart-wrenching sobs. Again.

"Zoeybird." Nyx spoke in her wonderful voice. She was beautiful, wearing a long white dress. Her black hair was pulled up into a high, elegant bun. She reached out and touched my shoulder. "Spirit, be with Zoey, comfort her." As soon as she spoke the words I felt my element flow through me, in spite of where I was and why I was there, I smiled. "There is that smile that I love so much u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya."

"Yeah, Zo is beautiful when she smiles." Heath said. Hearing his voice my smile evaporated.

"Oh Goddess!" I put my face in my hands "I messed up. I really, really messed up."

"No, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. You are following your heart." Nyx took my face, gently lifting it up to meet her eyes. "You don't belong here. You belong in the world of the living. You belong with your friends and your grandma." with her free hand she reached out, touching the side of Heath's face, "You were a great Consort to my High Priestess. I did not Mark you as one of my own, but I do consider you a very important part of Zoey's life, which makes you very important to me."

"Thanks," Heath mumbled. He actually looked embarrassed! "I would do anything for you and Zo. Especially Zo."

"Say goodbye to your human consort, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. Then I will accompany you back to the world of the living."

I started crying those heart-wrenching sobs again. "I can't say good bye to him. I love him so much."

"Zo. I love you too but they need you back home. Our friends. They need your help. You're the only one who can beat Kalona."

"No. I can't do this alone. I'm so confused. This is bullpoopie." I shouted.

"You won't be alone, Zo." Heath said. He put his hand over my heart. "I'm always going to be right there, with you. Plus, you have all of your friends and Stark."

I walked over to Heath and threw my arms around him, holding him to me. Heath kissed me, it wasn't like any kiss we had ever shared. This kiss was final, the end. He was saying goodbye. He was the one that pulled back first to whisper in my ear "Do not trust Kalona, Zoey. He's pure evil, no good at all."

I couldn't help the way my heart started beating at just the mention of Kalona's name. I nodded. I didn't know if I would be able to ever stop loving him, but I would defeat him. He killed Heath, the most important person in my life. Heath, the person that I had known my whole life and had loved for most of that life. I thought that maybe I loved Kalona, but I loved Heath too. He was my human rock, always there for me whenever I needed him.

"Zo, listen to me. They want you to go to him willingly. They want to kill you when you do. Hell Zo, the crazy red head wants to kill you now." His voice was fierce, but then it took on a softer tone. "Please be careful Zo. I need to know that you will defeat him."

I didn't trust my voice, so I just nodded.

"Zoey." the way that Heath said my name was filled with such sadness. I looked up to see his face, he was crying. He was dead, he was supposed to be at peace but just like everything else I was messing it up.

"Yeah?" I asked

"Tell my mom and dad I said I love them." He leaned down, giving me one last kiss. Then he was gone.

I turned around to look at Nyx. She was sitting on the same dock that Heath had been sitting at fishing. "What do I do now?" I asked. I didn't know how I got to the Otherworld, so I obviously didn't know how to get back.

"Take my hand u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya."

I walked over to my beautiful Goddess, placing my hand in hers I closed my eyes.

It wasn't even a second later that I left the Otherworld. I was back in my old body, laying on the ground. Stark, my Warrior, was kneeling beside me crying. All around us I could hear people crying. The twins. Jack and Damien. I thought maybe Darius, but one person who wasn't crying was Aphrodite. She was screaming.

"Dammit Z, wake the hell up!" Her voice sounded on the verge of tears. "This wasn't supposed to happen! I didn't see this happen! Z! Wake up. Please."

I wanted so badly to open my eyes, to see my friends and to tell them that I was okay, but I couldn't. I felt like I wasn't really in my body, just an innocent by stander hearing all of this happen.

I felt the air around me grow colder, and I knew that Nyx was there.

"It's okay my children." I heard her wonderful voice say, "Zoey Redbird will be okay."

All around me I heard a sharp intake of breathe.

"Thank Goddess you're here Nyx!" Aphrodite said, she sounded much calmer now. "Everything is going to be okay now."

"Yes my daughter it will be." Her voice sounded much closer to me, then I felt lips being pressed to the center of my forehead, right were my Mark was. As soon as her lips touched my Mark, I felt a tingly sensation where all of my other Marks were. Everybody gasped again. When her lips left my Mark, my eyes flew open.

Nyx was standing right over me. Unlike in my dream, where she looked solid, here she looked like a ghost. I looked around to see all of my other friends huddled close together. Tears running silently down all of their faces. I probably should had said something to let everyone know that I was okay, that everything was going to be okay now like Aphrodite had said. I didn't. I didn't say anything at all, I just cried. Again.

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**Please read and review! Thanks!  
-Tay**

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	2. Chosen

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**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone! Kristin and P.C. Cast does! (:**

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**Zoey**

Living was harder than dying. Dying was peaceful but living was a constant battle. It was even harder when you were trying to live through a war; the war of good versus evil. For just a minute, I wished that I was dead. I wished that I was still in the Otherworld with Heath. I wished that my soul was still floating around in the blackness. The blackness of the Otherworld had put my soul in such a state of peace that I forgot about all of my worries. Every one of those worries came back to me now. Heath was dead, he was dead because of me. I was putting all of my friends lives in danger by bringing them to the Vampire High Council in Italy. Kalona could come back and kill all of us. Stevie Rae, my best friend in the whole world, was keeping more than just the red fledglings from me. I had a weird attraction to a fallen immortal. Each of these things made me cry even harder.

Mentally I thought 'Spirit be with me, ease my hurt and pain, comfort me.' As soon as I thought the words I felt my element flow through me again. It energized every cell in my body, soothing me. Eventually my sobs slowed and then stopped all together.

"Zoey?" Stark breathed. He threw his arms around me, pulling me closer to him. "I am so, so sorry Zoey."

"What did you do?" I asked between sobs.

"This is all my fault. I should have never left your side, then maybe I would have been here in time."

"No! It's not your fault. This is all my fault." I whispered

I saw Heath's crumpled body lying there, and I cried even harder. Seriously, I didn't think there were any more tears left in me to cry, but they seemed to be never ending. "Will you please get his body out of here?" I pleaded, looking at Darius.

"Yes, High Priestess." Darius said

"My Lady, I will accompany him." Stark said.

Darius walked over to Heath's body, gently picking him up he walked in the direction of the infirmary with Stark following close behind him.

"Everything is going to be alright u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya." Nyx said.

I shook my head "No, I can't do this! Goddess I have messed up so bad!"

"No, Z! I think your doing a great job!" Erin said, wiping the tears off of her face.

"Ditto, Twin." Shaunee said

"Yeah Z." Damien agreed "We wouldn't have made it this far without you." Jack nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, Z. I hate to agree with the Nerd Herd, but we need you to save us." Aphrodite said. "You make a much better leader than me." She whispered, looking at the ground.

"Children," Nyx said "Zoey is not the only one that has been doing a great job. Your Circle is following my path, you are all Chosen by me."

Nyx smiled, which made her face glow, then she snapped. I watched in amazement as the Marks of Damien, Erin and Shaunee started to glow. When they finally stopped glowing they turned a beautiful shade of silver.

"Wow," I breathed "Your Mark."

"I bet it just started glowing, and then turned silver." Shaunee said

"Then it turned all silver right?" Erin said, finishing Shaunee's thought.

"Yours did too Z" Jack said.

Damien nodded "All of them."

"Show the world that you are Chosen by me and stay on my path. You can save this world from Kalona and Neferet."

"Except for me," Aphrodite mumbled "I'm just a human."

"No, daughter. You were never just a human. You haven't been a human since the day you were Marked. I needed you to be there for Stevie Rae, which you have done. You have done your part well, and for that I shall bless you with what your heart desires most." Those were the last words Nyx said before she our world.

Aphrodite let out a small cry, then her hand flew up to the middle of her forehead. She fell to her knees, inches from my head. Then she started laughing. "Today has been the best day! First Bumpkin breaks our Imprint and now I get Marked again!" She surprised me by taking my hand. "We are in this together Z."

Damien sat down on the other side of me "Yeah Zoey. You heard Nyx. We are here. We are her Circle. We are just like the silver thread that binds our casting circle together. We are all connected."

"Please, just please" Shaunee said sitting down beside Aphrodite

"That is one of the corniest things we have ever heard." Erin said sitting down by my feet

"But its true," I said. "I have all of you with me. I have Stark to protect me and I have Heath in my heart. We are going to make it through this." but even as I said the words, I didn't believe in them.

Darius was running down the sidewalk "Aphrodite what happened?" He asked. Once he got a look at Aphrodite's face he stopped running.

Stark was right behind Darius, "My Lady, we put Heath's body on one of the cots in the infirmary." Stark said. He froze, staring at my Mark. Then he looked around at the rest of my circle, his eyes growing wide as he took in our silver Marks. "What happened to your Marks, Zoey?"

"Our Goddess Marked us as her Chosen circle." I said simply.

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**Please read and review  
-Tay **

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	3. Burning

**A/N: Wow. I haven't updated this story in forever! I couldn't really think of where I wanted to go with this story, it was only supposed to be a one shot, but now I'm pretty confident in the way this story is heading, so be expecting more updates soon! :) I hope you like this because it's the last Zoey chapter for a while; the next chapter will be in Stevie Rae's point of view then ****Rephaim and possibly Aprhodites POV before we get back to Zoey.**

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The moon was shinning brightly in the night sky, surrounded by millions of tiny glowing stars. The sight was really fantastic, but I wasn't in any mood to enjoy it. The moon could have caught fire and the world could be coming to an end, which I guess in my reality it was, but at that moment I wouldn't notice.

I was laying on the ground, under a blanket Stark laid down for me, with my eyes closed tight. I was looking at the blackness of my eyelids and trying to relax, wishing, not for the first time, that I was still lost in that mesmerizing darkness. The peace and the feeling of absolute perfection was almost enough to make me want to die, to stay with Heath forever, but I couldn't and some rational part of me realized that, while the larger more dominant part of me wanted death.

Heath was dead. He would always be dead, and he would never come back to me. Not as a Red Fledging and certainly not as a human and I had no time to grieve his death, because I needed to prepare myself for battle.

Dying would be a lot easier than facing Kalona, my soul mate, and his army of evil half bird half immortal people. Why was the weight of the world resting on my shoulders? I was just a teenager. I was supposed to be out at football games and go partying after, not plotting ways to take down the person that I was made to love. My life wasn't rational and for a minute I wished that I was normal.

But normal was boring, wasn't it? Did I really want my old life back, where I fought with my mom and step loser. Did I want to trade in my new magnificent friends, for Kayla? No, that wasn't what I wanted at all. I loved my new life, and it wasn't my fault that Kalona and Neferet, who I used to trust with my life, wanted to ruin it.

My cirlce and I, were the most powerful people in the world, with the help of Nyx. We had her silver tattoos surrounding us, her power flowing through our blood. We were Chosen to be the light in this creepy, increasingly dark world. It was our destiny, and we just had to accept that.

"Z?" Erin asked, her fingers intertwined with mine.

"What are you thinking about?" Shaunne finished softly, her fingers intertwined with my other hand.

We had been laying on this blanket since a very joyous Aprhodite and Darius left, with a shocked Stark following close behind them. We had been sitting in silence for the last hour, and their voices snapped me out of my own head.

"Destiny." I answered, my voice cracking from where I had been crying.

"What about it, Zoey." Damien asked, his fingers playing with my hair that was spread out on the ground. He was laying in the grass by my head, his voice barely more than a whisper.

We were the only three outside, together, and it made me feel like these three friends, my Chosen circle, were my family. Friends come and go, but family was supposed to be there for you, forever. No matter what, and I trusted these guys would always be with me.

"I was just thinking that no matter what happens, we always will have each other, and that I can always count on you guys to help me out when I'm in major bullpoopie." My voice was calm and soothing, thanks to the magic that was quickly repairing my broken soul.

"You already knew that." Shaunne said, giving my hand a soft squeeze at the same time Erin squeezed my other hand. I felt the corners of my lips turn up slightly, forming a small smile on my bleak face.

"We would never go anywhere." Erin finished, she reached her free hand out over my stomach, and Shaunne quickly grabbed it, and squeezed.

That was something that I loved about my friends. No matter how bad of a day we had, we always had time for each other. We were always there, gently supporting each other, holding each other up after our bad days. That could be the only thing keeping me alive.

"I don't know what I would do without you guys." I whispered.

I was already going to have to face life without Heath, and it pained me to even think about life without my friends. The Twins, Damien and Jack, Stevie Rae, my Grandma and even Aphrodite were the people that were going to help me through this, and in the end they were going to help me with whatever life would throw at me, they were truly the best people I could have asked for in my life.

"We would be dead without you, Zoey." Erin said.

"And we're way too young and pretty to die." Shaunne said, grimacing lightly.

"What the Twins are trying to say, is that we would most definitely not be able do defeat Kalona without you here to lead us." Damien said.

"I love you guys." I said, squeezing both of the Twins hands and sending a swirl of air over to Damien. He laughed as the air swept around him, making his hair dance, before it disappeared.

"We love you too." The chorused together and I felt their magic sweep over me. We were sitting on the sand of a beach, the waves barley missing our feet, we were in front of a warm fire place, cuddled together under a warm blanket, and we were in a valley, the breeze ruffling our hair and playing with the hem of our shirts all at the same time. I felt myself grinning.

We sat under the stars all night, and eventually we fell asleep that way, the events of the day taking it's toll on us. The twins holding both of my hands, their hands clasped together on my stomach, and Damien's hand softly laying on my hair but even surrounded by my friends, it wasn't enough to keep Kalona out of my dreams.

Today he took me to a field, and I had this feeling in my gut telling me that this was the field Aphrodite saw in her vision, the vision of the world burning. I stood in the middle of the field, with my fists clenched by my side.

He stood right in front of me, his inhuman beauty almost too much for me to stand looking at, but I couldn't draw my eyes away from his perfectly carved chest and his beautiful wings.

"Zoey." He whispered, shocking me by using my first name.

"What?" I snapped, tears starting to sting my eyes. "Why did you bring me here?"

"You know why." He answered simply as he walked towards me. He stopped about half an inch away from where I stood, and bent down, our foreheads almost touching. "Everything I do, I do for us." He breathed, and I felt his chilly breath meet my skin, making me shudder. I felt the familiar tugging of desire I always had for him, and tried to ignore it, only thinking of how he killed Heath.

Even as disgusted as I was by him, I couldn't bring myself to touch him. To push him away from me. "You killed Heath." I said, the tears starting to fall down my checks.

I wanted him to admit it, instead he gave one harsh, bitter laugh and that was enough to push me over the edge. I lashed my arms out, pushing him with all my might, but he only staggered a couple of feet, but that was all I needed.

"Fire, come to me!" I commanded, throwing my hands straight into the air. I was surprised when my element flowed through me. I threw my hands in front of me, pointing to Kalona and the fire wrapped around my arms, flowing straight to him. It wrapped around him, catching his wings on fire, and enveloping him in a blazing wall.

He laughed, and took two steps forward, standing right in front of me, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the fire with him.

Because I wasn't sick and twisted like he was, I screamed.

My screams thrust me out of my dream and brought me crashing down into reality. My eyes flew open and I was still screaming. I could feel his hands touching me and my element burning me. I could smell the burning wings, still so very fresh in my memory.

My screaming woke the twins and Damien up before the sun rose over the horizon, setting the sky ablaze with it's oranges and reds.

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**Soo please, please, please review :)  
-Tay**


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